North Dakota: “Indigenous peoples must be consulted prior to oil pipeline construction” – UN expert. GENEVA (22 September 2016) – The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, today called on the United States to halt the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline as it poses a significant risk to the drinking water of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and threatens to destroy their burial grounds and sacred sites.

Ms. Tauli-Corpuz’s call comes after a temporary halt to construction and the recognition of the need to hold ‘government-to-government consultations’ made by the US Departments of the Army, Justice and of the Interior. The 1,172 mile (1,890 km) pipeline is being built by the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Energy Transfer LLC Corporation. “The tribe was denied access to information and excluded from consultations at the planning stage of the project and environmental assessments failed to disclose the presence and proximity of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation,” the expert stressed. Ms.
Arrests of Journalists at Standing Rock Test the Boundaries of the First Amendment. Pat Boyle, a Denver-based journalist, was shot in the abdomen last Sunday by a rubber bullet as he reported from North Dakota on a clash between demonstrators and police that would end with 26 protesters sent to hospitals and 300 requiring other medical treatment.

One woman was severely injured and underwent emergency surgery on her arm after officers unleashed “less than lethal” weapons, including rubber bullets, icy cold water, and, reportedly, concussion grenades on the crowd. Police were reacting to an attempt by Dakota Access pipeline opponents to tow away burned vehicles that officers had secured in place to act as a highway blockade, preventing access to pipeline construction sites down the road.

The rubber bullet that hit Boyle tore right through his press pass, leaving a jagged hole through the words “Unicorn Riot,” his news organization’s name. Reporter Pat Boyle’s press pass after he was shot in the abdomen with a rubber bullet.
UNBALANCED: CIVIL RIGHTS vs SECURITY. ACLU of North Dakota Investigates Dakota Access Pipeline Protests Policing Tactics. Why do we punish Dakota pipeline protesters but exonerate the Bundys?
Sometime in the early summer when the Sacred Stone Camp was just a handful of tents and the Dakota Access machines had not yet come to our side of the Missouri river, I got an email from a woman who said her husband was Cliven Bundy and that she wanted to bring her daughters to stand with us.

I knew little of this gun-toting militia, but enough that I told her no, we are a non-violent encampment, you cannot come here. When I began to look into the Bundy’s standoff at the Malheur Refuge, I became angry. That place is a locus of ancestral heritage of the Burns Paiute Tribe, which the Bundys knowingly desecrated. They reportedly dug latrines through recognized cultural sites. As a tribal historic preservation officer, my heart broke when I heard they allegedly rifled through some 4,000 cultural items that had been kept in the museum.
#NoDAPL Tribal Leaders Testify Before International Human Rights Commission on Abuses. Tribal government leaders against the Dakota Access Pipeline appeared before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights today (December 9), where they asked the commission to protect their human rights, which they allege have been abused at the hands of law enforcement.

Those speaking included Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Councilman Chad Harrison, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Chairman Harold Frazier, Yankton Sioux Tribe Chairman Robert Wayne Flying Hawk and Yankton tribal member Faith Spotted Eagle. U.S. government officials also testified at the hearing, including representatives from the Department of Justice and Army Corps of Engineers. During the hearing, tribal members spoke of an overwhelming failure for the U.S. government to consult them when moving extractive projects like the pipeline forward. Frazier was most explicit about this, describing the minimal communication the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe received from U.S. agencies, even though its people rely on the Missouri River.

Police may not look at digital information on a cell phone when someone is arrested unless the police have a warrant to do so. Filming the Police on your cell phone. Your Right to Record Law Enforcement
Civil Liberties Defense Center. Dealing with Grand Juries In light of most recent events, Activists need to know how to protect themselves.

Here you will find a list of helpful materials surrounding Grand Juries. Please contact us if there is something more that you would like to see on this page.
Hey, MSM: All Journalism is Advocacy Journalism. Inside the Fight to Stop the Dakota Access Pipeline. A Congressional candidate was shot with a rubber bullet on Thursday while interviewing demonstrators gathered in protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, in an incident that was captured on camera.

In a video that has been uploaded to Facebook, Erin Schrode, a 25-year-old activist who is running for Congress in California, can be heard interviewing a protestor about his opposition to the pipeline on the grounds that it cuts through sacred native lands and will threaten the Standing Rock Sioux nation’s sole water source when the sound of a gunshot ripples through the air and the camera jolts violently as Schrode screams out in pain.

Though the shooter cannot be seen as the shot came from behind Schrode’s back, she told the New York Daily News she turned around to see an officer still pointing the barrel of his rubber bullet gun at her. Fourteen people were arrested at the North Dakota State Capitol in Bismarck during a protest Thursday afternoon.
Who's Zoomin' Who When the Oil, Gas Politics Gets Very Personal?
Angry anti-frackers take their frustration to FERC commission member's home.

With apologies to the Queen of Soul, this song title popped into my head while reading about the DC bureaucrat who’s being stalked by a gang of “anti-fracking” protestors. Deon Daugherty Senior Editor, Rigzone To hear it from Bloomberg, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) member Tony Clark can’t feed his kid in peace because certain environmentalists are griping that they’ve been “FERC’d” by the commission’s rules.

‘Dakota pipeline is about big money, not indigenous people rights’ — RT Op-Edge. When it comes to the rights of people of color in the US, government officials often side with corporations and Wall Street, said Solomon Comissiong, founder of the Your World News’ Media Collective.

The same is happening with North Dakota protests, he added. At least 141 Native Americans and other protesters were arrested in North Dakota in a clash with heavily armed US police officers. Demonstrators were camping on private grounds in an effort to halt the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline. The Morton County Sheriff's Department said pepper spray and armored vehicles were used to scatter the protesters. The demonstrations against the construction of the pipeline have been going on for months, and at times have been dealt with violently by police.
Drones involved in two pipeline protest criminal cases. One man is charged with stalking after he used a drone to photograph private security workers and another man is charged with felony reckless endangerment for allegedly flying a drone near a North Dakota Highway Patrol aircraft.

Meanwhile, the use of drones and other surveillance tactics by the pipeline company and law enforcement are being questioned by attorneys representing the pipeline resistance camp. Open records requests filed recently by the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Lawyers Guild seek to find out what surveillance methods have been used by law enforcement and whether any of it has been unconstitutional.

"It's a very tricky area, drone use, and we are very concerned about law enforcement and government use of drones," said Jennifer Cook, policy director for the ACLU of North Dakota. In Morton County, prosecutors charged Myron C. Highway Patrol Sgt.
The Arrest of Journalists and Filmmakers Covering the Dakota Pipeline Is a Threat to Democracy—and the Planet. On October 11, Deia Schlosberg, the producer of my new film, How to Let Go of the World and Love All the Things Climate Can’t Change, was arrested in Walhalla, North Dakota, while reporting on a climate-change protest.

She was held for 48 hours before being allowed to speak to a lawyer. The authorities confiscated her footage.
United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Crossing the Fossil Fuel Industry Could Now Get You Locked Up – For Decades. Battle Over Dakota Access Pipeline Should Be the Most Important of the Year. More than a million people around the U.S. have “checked in” via Facebook to Standing Rock Indian Reservation in Cannon Ball, N.D. While this began as an attempt to confuse Morton County Sheriff’s Department officials thought to be digitally surveilling activists, the check-ins morphed into a collective gesture of solidarity.

They are also a measure of how deeply the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s fight over the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL) resonates with the American public.
Standing Rock is the civil rights issue of our time – let's act accordingly. When John Doar died in 2014, Barack Obama, who’d already awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, called him “one of America’s bravest lawyers”. Without his courage and perseverance, the president said, “Michelle and I might not be where we are today”. Doar was the federal lawyer sent south by the Kennedy and Johnson justice departments to keep an eye on the explosive centers of the civil rights movement. Those White Houses didn’t do enough – but at least they kept watch on things.
A Tribal Activist War Rages On: The Dakota Access Pipeline and The Fight for Justice. The Cannonball River that runs through North Dakota, so named for its geological features that resemble cannonballs, is one of many tributaries of the Missouri River.

A long and cherished history of Native American tribes camping along its banks and made their livings. Today is no different.
The Surveillance State Descends on the Dakota Access Pipeline Spirit Camp. Dakota Access protesters say they were held in ‘dog kennels’ following mass arrests. As violent clashes over the $3.8 billion Dakota Access oil pipeline continue, allegations of abuse at the hands of law enforcement officials keep mounting. Native American activists arrested during the violent clearing of a protest camp last week say they were kept in “dog kennels.” “We were caged in dog kennels, sat on the floor, and we were marked with numbers,” said Floris White Bull, in a YouTube video posted Saturday. As she wiped tears from her face, she said the cages were placed in the garage at the Morton County Sheriff’s Department.

Urgent Appeal for International Observers. Intimidation of and Harassment Against Indigenous Human Rights Defender. Snow-mobilers and a truck tried to run... - We Are The Media. KING: Masked white men harass indigenous people in North Dakota. Donald Trump’s Real Threat to the Press.